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“After Dana wrote a letter of attorney, he tried to kill her to take the merchant group.”
Leon affirmed silently. But Owen’s question was not over yet.
“Who is he? Why have you been quiet so far?”
“He’s… Rian Felice, son-in-law of the Duke of Hamilton. After the incident, Dana had completely lost her memory, so she didn’t even know who she was.”
“If it’s Felice… Hmm, it’s not easy to pull him down if Duke Hamilton protects him.”
He couldn’t say he knew the Felice family well, but he’s heard it from Russell Deniz. He said Dana would stay at that house, and it could be assumed that the bad relationship at that time continued.
Upon hearing that it was the Duke of Hamilton, Owen realized why Leon didn’t kill him right away. In this country, the murder of a nobleman was ruled very strictly whatever the reason was. Even if the killer was the highest aristocrat like Leon, he had to suffer quite a bit.
Of course, the commoner was put to death without question. The nobleman was punished only when the crime was revealed through trial. In the case of felons, the death penalty was executed after depriving them of their title and making them a commoner.
Their conventional wisdom was that death as a “nobleman” should be honorable.
“Then when did she regain her memory?”
“She regained her memory just a while ago. It was right after she ran into him at the ball.”
Leon’s unpleasant, low voice became murky while talking. Owen saw his reaction and did not ask what Dana and Rian had to do with each other.
“Not coming back now must have something to do with finding memories.”
“Probably…”
Leon glanced again at the letter in his hand.
「Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon.” – Dana Deniz.
P.S., we are now going near the top of Deniz Merchants.」
Leon, who had been reading it again and again, paused at a point.
“We…”
In addition to the handwriting different from the previous sentence, the word “we” indicated that Dana was not alone. Suddenly, his heart became troubled.
“Father, I’ve explained to you to a certain extent, and I think I should get going.”
“Okay, first you focus on finding her. And you don’t have to worry too much about the merchant group.”
Owen got up from his seat, speaking in a reasonably conclusive tone. Leon, who was about to pass by him, saw Duke Tertius with a curious eye.
“Of course, he’s just an agent, so she’ll eventually get it back, but it’ll be a pretty terrifying fight because Dana used the power of attorney herself. If the Duke of Hamilton had an eye on it…”
Leon did not have to say the next word. He never thought she wouldn’t get it back. However, the process was tedious and quite cumbersome, and it wasn’t urgent right now.
“The agent’s representative… I don’t know if that’s valid. Anyway, I should look for it. Where did I put it?”
Owen muttered an unexpected word and stepped out of the door before Leon.
“Oh, Your Highness! Are you here?”
“Oh, Daniel. You’re working so hard. Bye then.”
Owen passed Daniel lightly and quickly disappeared to the end of the hallway. Daniel looked at him, then he reported to Leon,
“I submitted what you ordered. The order has been reversed. It seems that the officer in charge saw the name of the Grand Duke and passed it without any major problems.”
Leon nodded lightly and showed Daniel the letter. Daniel looked at it still and then raised his head.
Leon’s red eyes shone sharply.
* * *
Dana returned to the back of the building and entered a small building that connected like a warehouse. She walked carefully not to make footsteps, but there was no hesitation.
They didn’t let me come here then either.
It was when she lost her memory and was kicked out of the castle and worked at the Deniz merchants for a while as “Sarah”.
At that time, the manager told her not to do much because there were dangerous bombs and weapons on this side, but in fact, it was to hide this passage. If no one was allowed to come here, it was rather easy for her to approach.
When she opened the door again, a staircase leading appeared. There was a purple velvet cloth on the stairs. As she stepped on it, Dana recalled a bitter memory.
When Rian complained that it was difficult to come secretly because of the noise of footsteps going up and down the stairs, Dana covered the stairs with an expensive velvet cloth.
Like that… I was a fool. That was an excuse because he didn’t want to come.
She climbed up the stairs and opened the door. When she pulled back the curtains she had closed to cover the door, a familiar space appeared.
“Oh…”
This place had hardly changed and remained the same despite everything. She thought maybe he had already used the room for another purpose. However, he also understood that Dana Deniz’s death had not yet been announced so he couldn’t do it openly.
She swept the table with her hands for no reason. There was quite a lot of dust piled up from the lack of maintenance. Then suddenly, Dana realized that she was immersed in appreciation and shook her head.
“Whew, let’s get it together.”
She looked around the room and approached one wall.
I was choking on this wall.
She tried hard to suppress the anger that came up, and carefully put the frame hanging on the wall down to the floor.
When she removed the frame, the wooden wall was sawed finely in a square shape. When she pushed it out with both hands, it opened inwardly with a squeaking sound.
Whew, I’m glad I didn’t forget. I had no reason to think of this place… It’s ten rows like this.
In peaceful times, she often forgot about it. Just when the merchant building was built, it was a hidden closet where her father, Russell Deniz, brought Dana to.
Russell asked Dana to open the closet when it was difficult to protect the merchant group in the future.